To better understand the crime of viewing child pornography and why it happens, researchers decided look at the explanations that these offenders gave when confronted. They got their data from two different sources: interviews carried out by the police and interviews carried out by clinicians. The second group came exclusively after convictions had been made.
Among other things, they observed that many of the reasons given were the same in both groups. They also noticed that the groups were made up of similar demographics and people with similar criminal histories.
In both groups, many of the people did admit that they had at least possessed child pornography. Most even said that they had accessed it on purpose. However, in an interesting twist, the amount who said they were sexually interested in children or the material were described as a substantial minority.
Some people claimed they had only looked at the material because they were curious. Others said they had accessed it accidentally, without meaning to do so and with no intent. Some noted that they were addicted to it, though the number was small. A similarly small group said that they were tempted to do other things, like contact crimes, and they used online material as a substitute for it.
Another bit of information that was noted was that those who had been arrested more recently tended to have more material and collections that were "more sexually deviant."
Those who have been accused of possessing or accessing child pornography must know what legal defence options they have, especially when such things were done accidentally or without any direct intent.
Source: Journal of Sexual Aggression, "Explanations given by child pornography offenders for their crimes," Michael C. Setoa, Lesley Reevesb & Sandy Jungc, accessed July 08, 2016
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